Billion secs = 32 yrs, Trillion secs = 32,000 yrs

Sunday, January 31, 2010

If you were around in the sixties, you remember the scene: the family gathers around the TV, listening to Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra explain in delicious detail what was about to happen as a digital clock on the corner of the screen wound its way down to zero, ever so slowly. Then – finally – the roar of the mightiest engines every built. The cheers. The majestic sight of a Saturn V creeping up past the launch gantry as mission control solemnly declared: “Lift off. We have lift off at seven minutes past the hour.”

It was heady stuff, in a world of endless possibilities. We knew, without a doubt, that we could go anywhere, do anything and that we would continue to answer the burning human question that has driven mankind to new heights for millennia: what’s out there? More>>

The United Nations' expert panel on climate change based claims about ice disappearing from the world's mountain tops on a student's dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine.

Officials were forced earlier this month to retract inaccurate claims in the IPCC's report about the melting of Himalayan glaciers Photo: GETTY

The revelation will cause fresh embarrassment for the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which had to issue a humiliating apology earlier this month over inaccurate statements about global warming. More>>

No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office.

O'Keefe asserts, primarily, that "The government has now confirmed what has always been clear: No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office." Earlier media reports had stated that this was what the government accused O'Keefe of doing when he was arrested with three other men earlier this week.

The nature of the investigation was to determine how the staff of Senator Mary Landrieu reacted to issues with the phones. Some weeks ago, Landrieu was quoted as saying that “Our lines have been jammed for weeks” when constituents complained that they could not get through to her office staff to note their opposition to Landrieu's vote on healthcare reform. "In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working," O'Keefe said.

Although he recognizes that he "could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building." But O'Keefe also states that the entire ordeal was videotaped and that he was "eager" for the government to allow the tape to be released. More>>

I feel better already. First he organized (that’s his forte…community organizing) a jobs summit to make us think Obamacare is not the only thing on his mind. Actually, destroying western civilization is the only thing on his mind.

Now he wants a jobs bill on his desk. What is a jobs bill anyway? The only jobs the government can create are government jobs. That is the only sector that’s expanded during the recession already. The trouble with government jobs is we have to pay for them, they are a drain on the economy not a boon!

The international banking families, the monarchy, the aristocrats, etc. found the perfect puppet to usher in their new world order…Barak Hussein Obama. He’s light skinned with no negro dialect unless he wants one (per Harry Reid), possessing extraordinary oratory skills, who hates America and would like nothing better than to bring her to her knees.

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Russia urged China to dump its Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds in 2008 in a bid to force a bailout of the largest U.S. mortgage-finance companies, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said.

Paulson learned of the “disruptive scheme” while attending the Beijing Summer Olympics, according to his memoir, “On The Brink.”

The Russians made a “top-level approach” to the Chinese “that together they might sell big chunks of their GSE holdings to force the U.S. to use its emergency authorities to prop up these companies,” Paulson said, referring to the acronym for government sponsored entities. The Chinese declined, he said.

Russia’s five-day war with U.S. ally Georgia started on Aug. 8, the same day as the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Games. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told U.S. President George W. Bush during those ceremonies that “war has started,” according to Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman. More>>

The State of the Caliphate is better than it

When a man is apprehended with a cache of weapons, body armor, a map of a military installation and jihadist personal effects, the natural response of most Americans is to assume the situation is terrorist-related. The Obama administration says otherwise.

Lloyd R. Woodson was arrested Jan. 25 in rural New Jersey. He had been observed behaving strangely, wearing military-style fatigues and a bulletproof vest. He had a weapon modified to fire .50-caliber rounds from beneath his jacket. He had a hotel room full of weapons and ammunition. Despite all these warning signs, the immediate response from the government was that this was "not a terrorism thing."

Bureaucratic lack of concern raises a critical question: If this is not the behavior of a terrorist, what is? More>>

If Beck's ratings are going up, it is from other Libtardarians or far left wingers, because REAL conservatives have abandoned his show in droves due to him aiding Obama and Soros sweep the eligibility issue under the rug. I hate to break the news to you all, but Beck is not a conservative. Beck is an obstacle to my goal, a Special Prosecutor to investigate Obama aka Barry Soetoro's ineligibility status. Therefore; he is now fair game. I am coordinating a movement to demand that Beck, Bill O', Katie Couric, Williams and Matthews just to name a few to testify under oath regarding any links to a conspiracy to feed disinformation and lies to the American people about Obama's eligibility. Why am I targeting the media? It is their lies that allowed Obama to skate attention prior to the election on his eligibility issue and they are also aiding in the cover up after the fact. There are multiple felonies alleged against Obama and this is much bigger than Watergate ever was. Phil Berg stated that Nixon resigned due to the scandal of Watergate, because it was on the news 24/7. That is what we are lacking here. Once this topic is in the news 24/7, Obam will be forced to resign. I suspect that they are aiding in the greatest fraud against the American people and the biggest threat to national security in our history. I also think that they should be thrown into jail if it is proven that they aided in this fraud. It is alleged that this president has ties to foreign countries such as Indonesia, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Russia. More>>

If you agree with that sentiment, you probably were encouraged by the President…but if you are troubled by the prospect of bigger government, higher taxes and less freedom, let’s get behind the words and understand the reality of what was said.

In 1973, the movie “The Sting” starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford won seven Academy Awards including best picture. It was a great movie about The Big Con.

The idea behind “The Sting” was to put together a series of scams (cons) designed to fool the “mark” and steal his money while he was unaware of what was really going on.

To accomplish this, the movie had a devious team of very likable con artists (likeability is critical to success) with a plan to steal a large amount of money. The “mark” (the target of the con) was a very disagreeable chap who was gullible enough to think he could get something for nothing. As the plot unfolded, the unsuspecting mark was left with nothing while the scam artists made off with his money.

A Big Con is always designed to deceive, mislead and misdirect the mark. Among the tools of the con artist’s trade are:

Bait and Switch

3 Card Monte

The Shell Game

Role Playing

Ultimately, the con artist must be extremely arrogant believing he is brighter than the mark…can mislead him with impunity…and can pull off the sting before the mark is ever aware of the scam.

Perhaps there are some lessons to be learned from this Hollywood script that can be applied to what’s going on in DC right now.

“THE STING” WASHINGTON DC STYLE

The Team of Con Artists: The administration and the liberal Congress. Isn’t it interesting that we call our legislators “CONgressMEN”?

The Mark: You and me…the American public

Setting the Hook:

The Bait and Switch:

1.The bait… “No more earmarks”…the switch…more than 10,000 earmarks in the appropriation bills passed by Congress in 2009.

2.The bait… “The most transparent administration in history”…the switch…a total blackout of the healthcare legislative process and the backroom deals, bribes and threats required to get the bill through Congress.

3.The bait… “Change you can believe in”…the switch…the most partisan, most rancorous year in DC politics in memory.

4.The bait… “Give me a trillion dollar stimulus bill and unemployment will not rise above 8%”…the switch…10% unemployment for the last 6 months and no relief in sight.

5.The bait…“I don’t want to run the banks or the car companies”…the switch…government takeovers of many financial institutions and both Chrysler and General Motors.

The list is endless, but you get the idea.

The 3 Card Monte: How many different versions of the healthcare reform bill were there? How many changes in the various bills….in fact how many different ways did the bill “morph”?

To this day, do you know whether this is healthcare reform…or healthcare insurance reform…does it have a public option or not…will it ration care…will it cut Medicare …will it increase the deficit or be deficit neutral…will you be able to keep you current insurance…will your premiums increase…will the government pay for abortions…???

One thing we can know for sure…if passed, the government and the trial lawyers will be in charge of your healthcare.

So just where is the Ace of Spades…can you spot it?

The Shell Game: The con artists’ proposal to deal with the ballooning deficit is a real shell game. The con artist made a big public announcement about saving $250 billion dollars over three years (with a spending freeze that doesn’t start until 2011), but failed to mention this effort doesn’t even cover the interest on the debt.

In fact this approach to paying down the $2.75 trillion (yes, trillion with a T) dollar deficit this liberal government is running up in just two years (2009/2010) is worse than you choosing to pay down your credit card debt by making the minimum payments each month. Since the minimum payment barely covers the interest charges, you hardly make a dent in the balance due.

The government’s spending freeze plan is worse because the payments don’t even cover the interest due.

Role Playing: Will the real Barak Obama stand up? Is he the slightly left centrist he modeled during the campaign? Or, the hard leftist, “spread the wealth” politician he displayed during his first year in office? Or, perhaps he is the populist on display this past Wednesday night in the State of the Union address.

The role he played during the State of the Union speech was certainly breathtaking. He came out swinging against his own party’s disgusting abuse of its majority power…abuse which he encouraged for the past 12 months. Then, he brazenly claimed (against all evidence to the contrary) that he had nothing to do with the bribes and closed door deals his liberal Congress endorsed to get the healthcare bill through the House and Senate. Maybe he thought we weren’t watching.

Actually he thinks we’re that dumb…everyone knows the “mark” believes whatever he’s been programmed to believe by the con artists’ sleight of hand.

Arrogance: The successful con artist must believe that he is more intelligent than his mark and can play the mark as a fool. Three incidents in the past 10 days demonstrate this administration’s arrogance well.

On the 2010 elections…he said this will not be a repeat of the 1994 midterm elections when conservatives took control of Congress ”because this time you have me”

On the focus of the debate…although he often insists this is not about him, in his recent “Jobs” speech in Ohio he used the personal pronoun “I”, 132 times…but of course it is not about him. (go to Youtube and search for “You probably think this speech is about you”)

On the intelligence of the American voters…he said the problem is not with his policies. The people just don’t get it. After only 411 speeches and more than 50 appearances on national television, more than any first year President in history), “I have to do a better job of communicating our priorities to the people”

Yes, Mr. President, please use smaller words so we can get it (or, just maybe it is your policies after all).

But, for all this…never forget the President cannot spend money that Congress doesn’t give him to spend. The Constitution mandates Congress is the only branch of the federal government that can appropriate money and all appropriations bills must originate in the House of Representatives.

But, the Constitution currently puts no limits on how much money the Congress can borrow or spend. We must amend the Constitution to restrict a runaway legislature from bankrupting our country.

UN climate chief Rajendra Pachauri 'got grants through bogus claims'

Claims of melting Himalayan glaciers have been cited in grant applications

The chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has used bogus claims that Himalayan glaciers were melting to win grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Rajendra Pachauri's Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), based in New Delhi, was awarded up to £310,000 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the lion's share of a £2.5m EU grant funded by European taxpayers.

It means that EU taxpayers are funding research into a scientific claim about glaciers that any ice researcher should immediately recognise as bogus. The revelation comes just a week after The Sunday Times highlighted serious scientific flaws in the IPCC's 2007 benchmark report on the likely impacts of global warming.

Climate chief was told of false glacier claims before Copenhagen

Most experts believe that the Himalayan glaciers will take centuries to melt

The chairman of the leading climate change watchdog was informed that claims about melting Himalayan glaciers were false before the Copenhagen summit, The Times has learnt.

Rajendra Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but he waited two months to correct it. He failed to act despite learning that the claim had been refuted by several leading glaciologists.

The IPCC’s report underpinned the proposals at Copenhagen for drastic cuts in global emissions.

Dr Pachauri, who played a leading role at the summit, corrected the error last week after coming under media pressure. He told The Times on January 22 that he had only known about the error for a few days. He said: “I became aware of this when it was reported in the media about ten days ago. Before that, it was really not made known. Nobody brought it to my attention. There were statements, but we never looked at this 2035 number.”

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Asked whether he had deliberately kept silent about the error to avoid embarrassment at Copenhagen, he said: “That’s ridiculous. It never came to my attention before the Copenhagen summit. It wasn’t in the public sphere.”

However, a prominent science journalist said that he had asked Dr Pachauri about the 2035 error last November. Pallava Bagla, who writes for Science journal, said he had asked Dr Pachauri about the error. He said that Dr Pachauri had replied: “I don’t have anything to add on glaciers.” More>>

Winston Steward, 51, of Frazier Park, Calif., told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer he made up the name "Ellie Light" to protect himself from criticism and possible physical attacks from "conservatives." He said he used fake addresses across the country to get local newspapers to publish his letters.

Steward was one of several individuals who claimed to be Light. The Plain-Dealer, which published some of Light's letters, reported Steward's e-mail address matched the address of Light messages sent to U.S. newspapers. The Plain-Dealer also said that to track Steward, it used phone interviews and public records, including those of marriages, property and professional licenses in California and Texas. More>>

A prominent attorney who has shepherded a number of high-profile legal cases challenging Barack Obama'seligibility to be president has brought a "Quo Warranto" case to district court in Washington, D.C., alleging his allegiances have included Britain, Kenya and Indonesia.

A Quo Warranto action, first recorded some 800 years ago, essentially is a demand to know by what authority a public figure is acting. The case, brought by California attorney Orly Taitz on behalf of herself, was assigned to Chief Judge Royce Lamberth.

Taitz told WND that in a separate action she has filed a notice of appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of the dismissal of a case she brought on behalf of Ambassador Alan Keyes and dozens of other individuals in California challenging Obama's eligibility.

She previously attempted Quo Warranto cases on behalf of government officials, without response. This time she filed the action directly with the court on her own behalf.

"The case revolves around the federal question of eligibility of the president under Quo Warranto," she wrote. More

Dershowitz critiques Goldstone report

NEW YORK - Just as Israel prepares to rebut a report condemning its military offensive in Gaza last winter, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz is charging the authors of the Goldstone Report with basing their conclusions on biased evidence and flawed analyses. In a 49-page critique, "The Case Against the Goldstone Report: A Study in Evidentiary Bias," Dershowitz accuses the Goldstone Commission of employing different criteria in assessing evidence against Israel and Hamas. "They skew it one way against Israel and another way against Hamas," Dershowitz told The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Wednesday. According to a copy of Dershowitz's analysis, "The Goldstone Report, when read in full and in context, is much worse than most of its detractors believe." "It is far more accusatory of Israel, far less balanced in its criticism of Hamas, far less honest in its evaluation of the evidence, far less responsible in drawing its conclusion, far more biased against Israeli than Palestinian witnesses, and far more willing to draw adverse inferences of intentionality from Israeli conduct and statements than from comparable Palestinian conduct and statements," he added. More>>

'Real danger' is that unsupported war crimes charges will develop

An organization that holds special "consultative status" with a branch of the United Nations is accusing the international body of setting up Israeli officials for unjustified war crimes prosecutions with a biased report on the nation's 2008 conflict with Hamas.

The charge is being leveled by officials with the European Centre for Law and Justice, an international law firm focusing on the protection of human rights and religious freedom in Europe and worldwide.

In an evaluation of the U.N.'s Goldstone Report on the military conflict, the ECLJ challenged the objectivity of the report that levels accusations of war crimes against Israel and "encourages states and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to exercise universal jurisdiction to prosecute the Israelis."

"The real danger from the Goldstone Report is that countries will believe the many falsehoods contained in it and urge the International Criminal Court to try Israeli officials for war crimes that they did not commit and, in fact, took Herculean measures to avoid," said Robert Ash, a senior litigation counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, the ECLJ's American division, and an attorney who worked extensively on the report. More>>

Luke Sharrett/The New York Times Representatives John Boehner (from left), Eric Cantor and Mike Pence listened to President Obama address Republican lawmakers in Baltimore.

Updated BALTIMORE — President Obama and the Congressional Republicans who have opposed him engaged in a lively and robust debate on Friday over health care, the economy and who was more to blame for the toxic atmosphere clouding the nation’s politics.

Mr. Obama visited the House Republican retreat here in an effort to break through the partisan logjam that has helped stall his legislative agenda, and what ensued was a rare, sustained and unscripted exchange over the best way to address the nation’s ills.

In a session that resembled the British custom where a prime minister responds to questions in Parliament, Mr. Obama took questions from House Republicans, who pressed him on why he had disregarded their ideas and instead advanced what they called big government solutions rather than more surgical alternatives.

Mr. Obama replied that he did consider many of the suggestions they had made over the past year and incorporated some of them into his initiatives but found others unworkable or simply political posturing. Rejecting the notion that he had pushed a “Bolshevik plot” on America, he complained that Republicans had caricatured him as a radical, making it harder to then sit down and compromise. More>>

Of the many tall tales spun by President Barack Obama during the State of the Union address this week, there is one, and perhaps only one, that most Americans believe to be true.

The old yarn goes something like this: A long time ago, the United States was an economic powerhouse. We built things with our hands and worked in factories and we loved it.

Our recent prosperity, on the other hand, was built on a house of cards — intellectual innovation, risk, free-wheeling markets and international trade — and nothing more than an illusion.

"We can't afford another so- called economic expansion like the one from the last decade — what some call the 'lost decade,' " Obama explained. The president went on to promise he would do all he could to stop any pesky so-called expansions in the future. And I believe him.

Me too. If the President won’t stop the next expansion, Congress and the public sector unions will.

A recent poll shows that Obama is not alone in his aversion to the 2000s. According to a Pew Research Center poll, over 50 percent of American hold a negative view of the decade. Yet, the 2000s, like decades before it, are by nearly any measure — be it health, standard of living, the environment or technology — a success.

The average unemployment rate during this "lost decade" — including one of those unfortunate man-made disasters to the country's financial center — was at 5.6 percent. One would think that the president — a man who believes a "jobs" bills that only saw unemployment go from nearly 8 percent to over 10 percent was a wild success — would be sort of impressed.

No. Obama tells us a real economic expansion will be based on legitimate, tangible, economic drivers like high-speed rail systems no one wants and government-subsidized "clean energy" nobody uses.

Other delightful developments of the “lost” decade: A drop in the number of teens having sex, a drop in teen pregnancies, a drop in the cost of food/clothing, less crime, and steady drops in accident rates. For most Americans, life got better.

[T]he state of the union will be just fine — if only our so-called leaders in Washington would let it be. Source>>

But that single receipt makes up just part of the more than $101,000 taxpayers paid for "in-flight services" – including food and liquor, for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trips on Air Force jets over the last two years. That's almost $1,000 per week.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch, which investigates and prosecutes government corruption, show that the Pelosi incurred expenses of some $2.1 million for her use of Air Force jets for travel over that time.

"Speaker Pelosi has a history of wasting taxpayer funds with her boorish demands for military travel," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said today. "And these documents suggest the Speaker's congressional delegations are more about partying than anything else."

"Politicians believe laws and rules (even the U.S. Constitution) apply to the rest of us but not to them. Case in point: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her excessive and boorish demands for military travel. Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Pentagon in 2008 that suggest Pelosi has been treating the Air Force like her own personal airline," the evaluation said. More>>

By John W. White­head Pres­i­dent, The Ruther­ford Institute

“As I look at America today, I am not afraid to say that I am afraid.” – Bertram Gross, Friendly Fas­cism: The New Face of Power in America

Omi­nous devel­op­ments in America have been a long time coming, in part pre­cip­i­tated by “we the people” – a cit­i­zenry that has been asleep at the wheel for too long. And while there have been wake-up calls, we have failed to heed the warnings.

Just con­sider the state of our nation:

We’re encased in what some are calling an elec­tronic con­cen­tra­tion camp. The gov­ern­ment con­tinues to amass data files on more and more Amer­i­cans. Every­where we go, we are watched: at the banks, at the gro­cery store, at the mall, crossing the street. This loss of pri­vacy is symp­to­matic of the growing sur­veil­lance being car­ried out on average Amer­i­cans. Such sur­veil­lance grad­u­ally poi­sons the soul of a nation, trans­forming us from one in which we’re pre­sumed inno­cent until proven guilty to one in which everyone is a sus­pect and pre­sumed guilty. Thus, the ques­tion that must be asked is: can freedom in the United States flourish in an age when the phys­ical move­ments, indi­vidual pur­chases, con­ver­sa­tions and meet­ings of every cit­izen are under con­stant sur­veil­lance by pri­vate com­pa­nies and gov­ern­ment agencies? More>>

“But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors and stop insurance company abuses, let me know,” Obama said. “Here’s what I ask of Congress, though: Do not walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people.” More>>

Chris Matthews of MSNBC finally owned up to the left’s obsession about race when he announced that he had “forgotten” the president’s race for an entire hour during his first State of the Union speech:

“I forgot he was black tonight for an hour. He’s gone a long way to become a leader of this country and past so much history in just a year or two. I mean it’s something we don’t even think about.” “I was watching and I said, wait a minute, he’s an African-American guy in front of a bunch of other white people and there he is, President of the United States, and we’ve completely forgotten that tonight — completely forgotten it.”

The Wall Street Journal sums up the situation: “Big easily tapped oil fields close to shore have become off-limits. Western oil companies have been kicked out of much of the Middle East in recent decades, had assets seized in Venezuela and seen much of the U.S. roped off because of environmental regulations. Their access in Iran is limited by sanctions, in Russia by curbs on foreign investment, in Iraq by violence.” More>>

One stark and sobering way to frame the crisis is this: if the United States government were to nationalize (in other words, steal) every penny of private wealth accumulated by America’s citizens since the nation’s founding 235 years ago, the government would remain totally bankrupt.

According to the Federal Reserve’s most recent report on wealth, America’s private net worth was $53.4 trillion as of September, 2009. But at the same time, America’s debt and unfunded liabilities totaled at least $120,000,000,000,000.00 ($120 trillion), or 225% of the citizens’ net worth. Even if the government expropriated every dollar of private wealth in the nation, it would still have a deficit of $66,600,000,000,000.00 ($66.6 trillion), equal to $214,286.00 for every man, woman and child in America and roughly 500% of GDP. If the government does not directly seize the nation’s private wealth, then it will require $389,610 from each and every citizen to balance the country’s books. State, county and municipal debts and deficits are additional, already elephantine in many states (e.g., California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York) and growing at an alarming rate nationwide. In addition to the federal government, dozens of states are already bankrupt and sinking deeper into the morass every day.

The government continues to dig a deeper and deeper fiscal grave in which to bury its citizens. This year, the federal deficit will total at least $1,600,000,000,000.00 ($1.6 trillion), which represents overspending of $4,383,561,600.00 ($4.38 billion) per day. (The deficit during October and November, 2009, the first two months of Fiscal Year 2010, totaled $296,700,000,000.00 ($297 billion), or $4,863,934,000.00 ($4.9 billion) per day, a record.) Using the GAAP accounting method (which is what corporations are required to use because it presents a far more accurate and honest picture of a company’s finances than the cash accounting method primarily and misleadingly used by the U.S. government), the nation’s fiscal year 2009 deficit was roughly $9,000,000,000,000.00 ($9 trillion), or $24,700,000,000.00 ($24.7 billion) per day, as calculated by brilliant and well-respected economist John Williams. Fiscal Year 2010’s cash- and GAAP-accounting deficits will likely be worse than 2009’s, given government bailout and new program spending that is on steroids and psychotic.

Putting Fiscal Year 2009’s $9,000,000,000,000.00 ($9 trillion) deficit another way, 17% of America’s private wealth, accumulated over a period of 235 years, was wiped out by just one year’s worth of government deficit spending insanity. More>>

The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.

The University of East Anglia breached the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming.

The Information Commissioner’s Office decided that UEA failed in its duties under the Act but said that it could not prosecute those involved because the complaint was made too late, The Times has learnt. The ICO is now seeking to change the law to allow prosecutions if a complaint is made more than six months after a breach.

The stolen e-mails , revealed on the eve of the Copenhagen summit, showed how the university’s Climatic Research Unit attempted to thwart requests for scientific data and other information, and suggest that senior figures at the university were involved in decisions to refuse the requests. It is not known who stole the e-mails. More>>

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Barry Soetoro’s crime spree continues!

Illegal alien Candidate Obama campaigned as a fierce opponent of special interests that use their clout and connections to secure special favors from the government. As usurper President, Obama has made it clear that he only objected to particular special interests getting handouts. Obama happily gives some liberal special interests loopholes and exemptions from the laws that affect [...] More

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

FILE: Florida quarterback Tim Tebow embraces his mother, Pam. The two are featured in a pro-life Super Bowl ad that has rankled some women's groups.

College football phenom Tim Tebow is about to become one of the biggest stars of Super Bowl XLIV — and he's not even playing in the game.

Tebow, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for the University of Florida, and his mother Pam will appear in a pro-life commercial that tells the story of his risky birth 22 years ago -- an ad that critics suggest could lead to anti-abortion violence, even though none of them have seen it.

The 30-second spot, paid for by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow's turbulent pregnancy in 1987: More>>

A New York pastor claims Barack Obama is pure evil, not an American citizen, and therefore has no right to run the country.

A pastor in one Harlem church has been sending out political messages that have been causing much controversy in the US. Former prisoner-turned-pastor James David Manning, who also has his own radio show, is not a fan of the US President.

Offensive and what some call hate-filled messages fly out of his church on a daily basis.

He claims that both the police and the secret service have visited him because of his messages. Manning says he expects to be arrested soon for his political beliefs, which he insists would be an infringement of free speech.

The pastor alleges the President is not a US citizen and is therefore leading the country in breach of the Constitution, which bars foreigners from the White House hot seat. Manning has been daring Obama to prove him wrong.

“The only reason why they have not moved further to jack me up or imprison me is because, at present, he would have to demonstrate I am making false charges against him. But he can't do that,”Manning says.

JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities said Monday they are considering a petition to tear down a statue of US President Barack Obama as a boy, only a month after the bronze was unveiled in Jakarta.

The statue of "Little Barry" -- as Obama was known when he lived in the capital in the late 1960s -- stands in central Jakarta's Menteng Park, a short walk from the US president's former elementary school.

Critics say the site should have been used to honour an Indonesian and 55,000 people have joined a page on social networking website Facebook calling for the statue to be removed.

This will save $250 billion over the next decade, senior administration officials told reporters. (The debt during that same period is projected to grow by $9 trillion.) By 2015, non-security discretionary spending will be at its lowest level as a component of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product in 50 years.

In a related story, Nancy Pelosi’s Copenhagen trip cost the US taxpayer$1 Million in one weekend!

Public's Priorities for 2010: Economy, Jobs, Terrorism

Energy Concerns Fall, Deficit Concerns Rise

As Barack Obama begins his second year in office, the public’s priorities for the president and Congress remain much as they were one year ago. Strengthening the nation’s economy and improving the job situation continue to top the list. And, in the wake of the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, defending the country from future terrorist attacks also remains a top priority.

At the same time, the public has shifted the emphasis it assigns to two major policy issues: dealing with the nation’s energy problem and reducing the budget deficit. About half (49%) say that dealing with the nation’s energy problem should be a top priority, down from 60% a year ago. At the same time, there has been a modest rise in the percentage saying that reducing the budget deficit should be a top priority, from 53% to 60%.

Other policy priorities show little change from a year ago. For example, despite the ongoing debate over health care reform, about as many now call reducing health care costs a top priority (57%) as More>>

Highly informed sources on Capitol Hill have revealed to me details of the Democratic plan to sneak Obamacare through Congress, despite collapsing public approval for healthcare “reform” and disintegrating congressional support in the wake of Republican Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.

President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all have agreed to the basic framework of the plan.

Monday, January 25, 2010

State of Disunion

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." --Article II, Section I, U.S. Constitution On Wednesday, 27 January, Barack Hussein Obama will deliver his first "State of the Union" speech as president, a self evaluation of his first year's achievements. Sprinkled between his infamous "let me be clear" or "make no mistake" introduction to his lies, he will, characteristically, attempt to spin a plethora of failures into something including these phony fallback phrases: back from the brink; signs of recovery; restored our reputation; achieved some successes; more work yet to do; fiscal restraint; greed on Wall Street; affordable health care; relief for working families; job creation. He'll also use the word "inherited," as in "I inherited this mess." He'll speak of "unprecedented" reforms or achievements or challenges. And he'll mention "those who seek to do us harm," but he won't dare utter the term "Islamic terrorists." In advance of his teleprompted propaganda, then, let's take a reality check on Obama and his first year. Never before in the history of our great nation has any sitting president held so much disregard and outright contempt for our Constitution and Rule of Law. Perhaps the operative words in his oath were, "to the best of my ability"? Of course, what were we to expect from a Marxist, whose views on government and economy were shaped by his surrogate father and communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis; whose first campaign for political office was launched by Maoist anarchists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn; whose political career has been stewarded by the likes of Leftists Richard Daley, Michael Pfleger, Khalid al-Mansour, Rashid Khalidi, et al. And don't forget his religious mentor, Jeremiah Wright, who married Barack and Michelle and baptized their children. Wright preached hate, plain and simple: "The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government gives [black people] drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strikes law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, g-d d--- America. G-d d--- America for treating our citizens as less than human. G-d d--- America." Wright sermonized that our great nation is in fact the "U.S. of KKK-A" and is "controlled by and run by rich white people. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in god. And god has got to be sick of this sh-t!" How did Obama respond when asked about his pastor's perennial anti-American tirades? "It sounds like he was trying to be provocative," concludes Obama. At a foundational level, Obama's ability and his agenda have been shaped first and foremost by his condition as a pathological narcissist, a young man driven by a blinding need for acceptance and its coefficient, power -- the result of a childhood characterized by his father's, and then stepfather's, rejection. It should be noted that the young Barry Obama did not ask for or deserve the hardship he suffered as a child any more than millions of other children abandoned by their fathers today. In that respect, he deserves our compassion. However, Obama's insatiable pathological need for power renders him a very dangerous person in power. He was elected on a promise that should have served as a warning sign: "This is our moment, this is our time to turn the page on the policies of the past, to offer a new direction. We are fundamentally transforming the United States of America." He ran his charismatic campaign on a promise of "hope," but in the words of Patrick Henry, "It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth -- and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts." As for "fundamentally transforming" our nation, that is a thinly veiled reference to an outright assault on our Constitution and our Essential Liberty, one that thrusts an ever more powerful central government upon us. Not since 1860 has the Union been at such odds with the fundamental rights of the States and the People. Obama's effort to endow the central government with absolute authority follows his Socialist political playbook, Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals." Obama was elected just weeks after an economic collapse which can be tied directly to Leftist economic policies. His effort to "Reclaim America" involves taxing and borrowing more than a trillion dollars from the private sector, sifting it through the bureaucracies of his political appointees, then "investing" it into the public sector to grow government and pay off his special interest constituencies and other benefactors. He is plundering private sector resources under the pretense of private sector "job creation." He has attempted, with some success, to nationalize, by way of regulation, coercion or "investment," the major industrial and service segments of the economy -- including energy, banking, investment, education, insurance, automotive and real estate -- and he has supplanted free enterprise with Socialism. He is endeavoring to nationalize our nation's largest single economic sector, health care, and he laughs off any suggestion that there is no constitutional authority for such folly. Moreover, the House version creates 111 new oversight bureaucracies. (1) He has attempted to advance his domestic agenda on a global scale under the guise of "climate change." Further, Obama's national security failures present even greater peril to life and liberty. Coddling Islamic extremists, bowing to Saudi kings, apologizing to the world, politicizing terrorist interrogation methods at Gitmo, treating terrorism as "criminal activity" and moving the trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York, using Operation Enduring Freedom as campaign fodder and setting a timeframe for withdrawal from Afghanistan -- these and many more grossly errant policy decisions served only to hinder and demoralize us and our allies while empowering and emboldening our enemies, thus enabling jihadi attacks such as the murder of 12 soldiers, one civilian, and an unborn baby at Ft. Hood, and the narrowly averted bombing of a U.S. airliner this past Christmas Day. Of course, there were other ridiculous gaffes, like the one at his last public press conference (six months ago), when he offered his impromptu assessment of the arrest of his friend, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, by claiming that the Cambridge Police "acted stupidly." His subsequent "beer summit" was a forced and feeble attempt at damage control. And then there was the Nobel Peace Prize, a ridiculous Euro-leftist albatross of an award that was bestowed upon Obama just days after he ascended to the presidency. Were it not for the threat of unbridled laughter, Obama's SotU address might also reflect on some of the most egregious prevarications from his brief tenure. On his plans for massive government expansion: "Not because I believe in bigger government -- I don't." On his grand Socialist schemes: "I've never bought into these Malthusian, woe, Chicken Little, the earth is falling -- I tend to be pretty optimistic." On the so-called "stimulus package" (i.e., record debt): "Less than one month after taking office, we enacted the most sweeping recovery package in history, and we did so without any of the earmarks, pork-barrel projects that are usually accompanying these big -- these big bills." On bailouts for behemoth auto producers: "Let me be clear. The United States government has no interest in running GM. We have no intention of running GM." On his friends at ACORN: "You know, it's -- frankly, it's not really something I've followed closely. I didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money." On blame shifting: "You haven't seen me out there blaming the Republicans." On taxes: "I will tax just the rich. I want to give a tax cut to the middle class." On the cost of ObamaCare: "It won't add to the deficit. And I mean it! ... It's designed to lower it!" And how about this one: "I have not said I am in favor of a single-payer system." On the transparency of his health care "reform" deliberations: "It's going to be on C-SPAN." On jobs (record unemployment): "My administration has created or saved... [ad nauseam]." (2) On the political influence of grassroots Tea Party participants: "Those people waving their little tea bags around..." Clearly, Obama has underestimated the influence of those who support America's First Principles. In addition, he has also grossly misread his mandate as the heir of the once-noble Democratic Party. These miscalculations were manifest in the recent Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections, and again this week in Massachusetts. Who woulda thunk it -- that in the most liberal state of the union, whose legislature hastily amended laws so the governor could immediately appoint a Demo replacement for the seat vacated by the U.S. Senate's most liberal member, Ted Kennedy, who had occupied the seat for 47 years since the departure of his brother, JFK, and whose life ambition was to nationalize health care, whose designated replacement, Martha Coakley ran on his platform -- who woulda thunk that a Democrat who just weeks ago held a 30-point lead in the polls would be defeated by Scott Brown, a moderate Republican state legislator of the Mitt Romney variety, who ran on a platform against nationalized health care? Clearly, the loss of a Senate seat in Massachusetts is a major reality check for Obama. When asked about the rising rejection of his "vision" for America, Obama responded, "I think the assumption was if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on this provision or that law or if we're making a good rational decision here, then people will get it." In other words, "The people are just too dumb." And speaking of "the people," when Scott Brown was asked in his last debate with Coakley if he would be willing to "sit in Teddy Kennedy's seat" and vote against the health care bill, he responded, "Well, with all due respect, it's not the Kennedy seat, and it's not the Democrats' seat, it's the people's seat." Every Republican and Independent running for election or re-election in 2010 should, first, take that cue from Brown -- the seats they seek belong to the people. Second, they should take a cue from Ronald Reagan, who left a timeless template for success: Run on a platform that, first and foremost, insists on the re-establishment of constitutional Rule of Law, and then governs accordingly. For too long, too many Americans have been complacent about liberty, believing it to be their birthright and the birthright of generations to come. They have enjoyed the fruit of liberty defended by others, taking rights for granted and knowing nothing of the obligations for maintaining that blessing. Most Americans have never had to fight for liberty and, thus, have little concept of its value or any sense of gratitude for its accumulated cost -- a cost paid by generations of Patriots who have pledged their Lives, their Fortunes and their Sacred Honor. The election of Barack Hussein Obama was an egregious affront to our legacy of Essential Liberty, and a clarion call to action for the many good citizens who honor the rights and obligations of citizenship. As was the case with the first American Revolution, we now face a crucial battle for liberty. The upcoming elections, more than any other in recent history, are about the restoration of constitutional integrity. Indeed, fellow Patriots, this is our time. The road to recovery is long, but the momentum is with us. Footnotes: 1. With the election of Brown, ObamaCare in its present form is dead, but expect Obama to call for passage of revised legislation, which has support of both Republicans and Democrats. Once passed, it can then be readily amended. 2. Credit where credit due -- Obama's recovery plan has not created any real jobs, but it did secure new employment for at least three Republicans: One in Virginia, one in New Jersey and now one in Massachusetts. Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis! Mark Alexander Publisher, PatriotPost.US

On Wednesday, 27 January, Barack Hussein Obama will deliver his first "State of the Union" speech as president, a self evaluation of his first year's achievements.

The state of the union isn't what he pretends

President Obama's response to the catastrophic political failures of his freshman year in office is to fight harder for more of the same. Presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett made the point explicitly on Sunday, asserting that the White House is "not hitting a reset button at all." That reflects the kind of political savvy that handed the safest Democratic Senate seat in America to a Republican.

Mr. Obama seems unaware that he is part of the problem. The president credited Scott Brown's historic Senate-race victory in Massachusetts last week to the same voter frustration that swept him into office in 2008. The glitch in that worldview is that Mr. Brown ran explicitly against the Obama agenda.

Mr. Obama's response to comparisons to 1994, when Democrats lost control of both the House and Senate, is that "the big difference here and in '94 was you've got me." Mr. Obama certainly is making a big difference, but none that should give comfort to his party. More>>

By SABRA CHARTRAND, Special to The New York Times

JERUSALEM, Nov. 9— The police in Jerusalem today intensified their efforts to separate Palestinians and Israelis and to deter both spontaneous violence and planned attacks between Arabs and Jews, fearing more trouble after a month of killing and disorder.

The authorities closed Jerusalem to Palestinians from the occupied territories, detained several followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane and continued large-scale deployments all over the city. They were seeking to prevent disturbances at Al Aksa Mosque, where at least 17 Palestinans were killed four weeks ago, or attacks by Jews hoping to avenge the assassination of Rabbi Kahane.

Three members of Rabbi Kahane's Jewish extremist movement, Kach, were questioned today on suspicion of involvement in the killing of two West Bank Palestinians the morning after the rabbi was slain. The two elderly Arabs were gunned down in the village of Luban al Sharqiya, not far from a Jewish settlement where Kach members live.

Palestinian witnesses said the gunman drove a car with an Israeli license plate and wore a skullcap. 2 of 3 Freed on Bail

Two of the suspects, David Cohen and David Axelrod, were released on bail after turning over their guns. Nearly all Jewish settlers carry automatic rifles. Mr. Axelrod, an immigrant from the Soviet Union, is Leon Trotsky's great-grandson.

Israeli activists tell Rahm Emanuel to stay away from Kotel

Reports from Israeli news outlets are saying that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is being asked by right-wing activists to stay away from Kotel, when he arrives in Israel to celebrate his son's Bar Mitzvah. The Jerusalem Post and Arutz Sheva go into detail about the letter to Mr. Emanuel from Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel.:

"Throughout the past year you have been whispering in Obama's ear that he should pressure Israel, working like a fifth column in the White House against the Jewish people and the state of Israel. Recently you even told our consul in Los Angeles that Americans were 'disgusted with Israelis.' Unlike Israeli leaders, we will not brownnose and try to find favor in your eyes. We promise to welcome you in a manner you deserve – not with flowers and candy, but with our disgust for what you represent,"

Ben-Gvir and Marzel also told Mr. Emanuel that protesters will be waiting for him, when he arrives in Israel in the coming months. More>>

Every parent knows that protecting our children's innocence is a difficult task in the face of the tidal wave of sexually oriented material that flows into every corner of the culture. And so we must be able to trust the government and the schools to take the side of parents in protecting the innocence of our kids. Unfortunately, President Obama has violated that trust by appointing Kevin Jennings, a man who has no respect for childhood innocence, to a key position in the United States Department of Education. Kevin Jennings aggressively advocates using our schools to teach children—including young children—about homosexuality and homosexual practices. He is the author of a Foreword to a book called Queering Elementary Education, and as the former Director of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Educational Network), he supports a radical agenda that includes bringing sexual liberationist teachings into public schools. That’s what he means by “queering” elementary education. “Queering” our elementary schools means destroying the innocence of our children. Please help us to stop that moral atrocity from happening. Click Here to Tell Obama and Congress that Kevin Jennings Has No Place in the Department of Education.

The request to keep the details secret were made by the New York Federal Reserve -- a regulator that helped orchestrate the bailout -- and by the giant insurer itself, according to the emails.

The emails from early last year reveal that officials at the New York Fed were only comfortable with AIG submitting a critical bailout-related document to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after getting assurances from the regulatory agency that "special security procedures" would be used to handle the document.

The SEC, according to an email sent by a New York Fed lawyer on January 13, 2009, agreed to limit the number of SEC employees who would review the document to just two and keep the document locked in a safe while the SEC considered AIG's confidentiality request.

The SEC had also agreed that if it determined the document should not be made public, it would be stored "in a special area where national security related files are kept," the lawyer wrote.

In another email, a New York Fed official said the SEC suggested in late December 2008, that AIG file the document under seal and then apply to the regulatory agency for so-called confidential treatment, if central bankers wanted to stop the information from becoming public. More>>

NYC's top cop Ray Kelly on decision to have terror trials in NY: We were not consulted

New York City's Police Commissioner Ray Kelly addressed the New York Young Republican Club on Thursday. Two hundred and fifty members of the organization were in attendance and mainly peppered the commissioner with questions regarding the upcoming 9/11 terror trials that are to be staged in lower Manhattan.

When asked how the decision for the trials to be hosted in New York came about, Commisioner Kelly's response produced gasps among audience members (h/t Loud Citizen).:

“We were not consulted,” Kelly said tersely of the decision. He stated that the trial “will raise the threat level of this city,” a threat that “will not fade any time soon.” And it affects more than lower Manhattan, we learned. “We will have to look at the entire city as a potential target.”

Commissioner Kelly also hinted that the terror trials could potentially be scrapped. He mentioned a recent Newsweek piece by Michael Isikoff discussing this issue. Moreover, lower Manhattan's Community Board 1 may very well veto the idea of the trials being held in their neighborhood. More>>

Ellie Light aka Robert Gibbs?

In recent weeks, Light has published virtually identical “Letters to the Editor” in support of President Barack Obama in more than a dozen newspapers.Every letter claimed a different residence for Light that happened to be in the newspaper’s circulation area.

“It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything,” said a letter from alleged Philadelphian Ellie Light, that was published in the Jan. 19 edition of The Philadelphia Daily News.

A letter from Light in the Jan. 20 edition of the San Francisco Examiner concluded with an identical sentence, but with an address for Light all the way across the country in Daly City, California. More>>

Obama Seen as Anti-Business by 77% of U.S. Investors

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. investors overwhelmingly see President Barack Obama as anti-business and question his ability to manage a financial crisis, according to a Bloomberg survey.

The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of U.S. respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency.

The poll also finds a decline in Obama’s overall favorability rating one year after taking office. He is viewed favorably by 27 percent of U.S. investors. In an October poll, 32 percent in the U.S. held a positive impression. More>>>

Why didn’t Buffett talk about this before, especially before the election!

BUFFETT: Well, Fannie and Freddie were creatures of Congress. They were supervised by Congress, and they actually sent the report annually to Sarbanes and Oxley. And every year, a 100-page report would go over and say these places are operating fine and risk looks (ph) and all that sort of thing. Congress was in charge of supervising, and they had a 200-person office that did nothing but look after those two, and look what happened.

So, I have some doubts of the efficacy of simple regulations. I like the really great personal downside. I think that can be more reflective. Interview>>

UN climate change expert: there could be more errors in report

The Indian head of the UN climate change panel defended his position today even as further errors were identified in the panel's assessment of Himalayan glaciers.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri dismissed calls for him to resign over the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change’s retraction of a prediction that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.

But he admitted that there may have been other errors in the same section of the report, and said that he was considering whether to take action against those responsible.

“I know a lot of climate sceptics are after my blood, but I’m in no mood to oblige them,” he told The Times in an interview. “It was a collective failure by a number of people,” he said. “I need to consider what action to take, but that will take several weeks. It’s best to think with a cool head, rather than shoot from the hip.”

Massachusetts may signal an end to old ways of fighting.

What does the Massachusetts election mean? It means America is in play again. The 2008 election settled nothing, not even for a while. Our national politics are reflecting what appears to be going on geologically, on the bottom of the oceans and beneath the crust of the Earth: the tectonic plates are moving.

America never stops moving now.

Massachusetts said, "Yes, we want change, but the change we want is not the change that has been delivered by the Democratic administration and the Democratic Congress. So we will turn elsewhere." More>>

The unions (democrat aparatics) are no longer able to spend with impunity on campaign ads while opposing views are not allowed.

WASHINGTON — The ruling was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace will corrupt democracy.

“If the First Amendment has any force,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, which included the four members of its conservative wing, “it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” More>>